LAST CHILD

 As the last child, I'd often given leeway from my parents but not from my brothers. 

Growing up, my father was always away. Working for the art & culture ministry he has to go to world's art gallery and visits a lot of continents, villages, national park, etc. So my mother has to take care of my 2 brothers and I while working an 8 to 5 job. 

I still remember on weekends, she made us remember the 1 to 12 ciphers while she's cooking lunch. She delegates house chores for us too but I always get to do the easiest one. She don't allow me to wash dishes, she only let me wipe the table. I never washed my school shoes. NEVER. I mean I don't have to. My mother wouldn't let me. Well I think I did try to wash once but she ask me to leave it and so I did.

Every time my father came back from his overseas journey, he always gets us souvenirs. Be it just pen and some cheap T-Shirts, we're happy. Genuinely happy for his returns than those presents. Really. But I still remember & kept most of the presents from my childhood. A pen from Australia, a pair of chopsticks and bangles from Bangkok, prunes and apricots from Cape Town, a shawl from Istanbul,  and many more.

I excel in school. I always in the top 5 in the class and I'm in the first class too. I did well. After my UPSR result came out, I beg my parents to drop me off of a boarding school. They hesitated at first as I NEVER really have to do anything myself. How can I in boarding school? And so I went and learn my way everything from the bottom. Where I first time hand wash my clothes, I have to make my bed (Now I feel like a rotten child), I have to wake myself up and boy, how many times I was late to school. LOL. 

Since then, I have lived away from my family. I'm the last child and I'm out since I was 13 years old. I've lived in a lot of place; East coast, central, northern. I work from the bottom. I went house to house doing sales, waited tables, work in boutiques, call centre, health centre and even pub. I've seen a lot of people, I've learn a lot more. 

When a child is out for a journey, every visits home are as a guest. I read this somewhere and I believe that's true. But my family would never be anything else than home to me. We fight hard and we love harder.